//------------------------------//
// First Day Surprises 
// Story: My Time in Equestria 
// by The Stainmore Phoenix 
//------------------------------//

	The next morning, I awoke to sunlight flooding the room. Why did Princess Celestia’s sun have to be so danged torturous? I groaned about and after getting dressed, I stumbled down the stairs, to see the kids sitting around, looking glum.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“Oh, we were supposed to be going to school, but everyone’s gone off to handle their morning chores,” Coalstreak said.

I was thinking of how to get around this problem when I face palmed. I was the answer to their dilemma!

“Come on,” I said. “I’ll take you to school.”

Writing out that I had taken the kids to school, I walked with them to their school, a single room building. It had the same design as the building my grandfather on my father’s side would have used. Bidding them farewell, I set off to enjoy my vacation, but that was soon dashed.

Blocking a bridge was a rather large cart, which two pegasi ponies were struggling to move. I noticed that it had a large metal plow on it. The load was evidentially too heavy and there was no one else to assist them. Deciding that a blocked bridge wouldn’t do, I got positioned behind the cart and after calling to them that I’d push if they pulled, then we could deliver the plow.

“That’s kind of you stranger,” they called back.

I accepted the thank you and started to push. The two pegasi struggled to pull, but the heavy cart moved at last, albeit slowly and painfully. My legs and arms ached, but I continued to push until one said that they could see an apple orchard in the distance. I thanked them for that information and continued to push the cart.

The apple orchard was large and there were trees as far as the eye could jolly well see. Standing on the porch of a farm house was a large red stallion with a sliced open apple, revealing apple seeds. One of the pegasi ponies asked if he was Big Macintosh, and after a drawl of “Eeyup”, they set to work unloading the cart (with my help).

When all was finished, the pegasi ponies thanked me and I went back to town. I began to explore Ponyville and soon got an idea of where everything was. When I finished, I made my way back to the castle.

“Now for my private relaxation time,” I said after entering the castle.

Once I reached my bedroom, I shut the door, pulled out my guitar and songs and settled down to play. I could easily play anywhere between twelve and fifty tunes without reading the music, but I preferred to read the music sheets to make sure I was playing the songs correctly.

Something that my old enemies could never understand was why I liked playing the guitar. To them, the “excuse” that music calmed my nerves wasn’t good enough, but I learned to ignore them. Others thought that I was too brilliant a guitar player to let it soothe my nerves, but they accepted the fact.

Now, there was a reason I brought my guitar with me on vacation, and that was that vacation time tended to be stressful, mainly because of unplanned for problems which had a tendency to hang around and stress me out to no end, so I had to counteract them. Usually in private, because I was always laughed at for being a guitarist only.

‘These ponies do seem friendly,’ I thought. ‘But I am not taking any chances.’

Despite my best efforts, my door was opened to reveal Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Dragonstorm, and Rarity, who had come to show me the town. They stared in a state of awe.

“Well, I never,” Rarity exclaimed. “That was some fine playing darling!”

I smiled wryly and merely shrugged. People always praised me about playing the guitar well and I learned to accept it. Coming from Rarity, it seemed to be a goal that many people wanted to gain. One thing I had noticed on arrival at the town, was ponies heaped praise on those who did their jobs and they basked in the praise, like it was a warm sun.

I wasn’t one of those types. I just simply get on with my jobs and if anyone praised me, I took it in stride. To the ponies watching me play, they seemed perplexed as to why I wasn’t basking in their praise. Finally, Dragonstorm asked me why I didn’t jump up and cheer with happiness.

“Being praised is all well and good,” I said. “But all the praise I’ve ever gotten from “friends” has been meaningless and I just accept it like cash and get on with living my life. It’s not that I don’t like your praise, it’s jus that basking in it doesn’t do my ego any good.”

Dragonstorm nodded. He told the others that I had the “Black 5 Syndrome”, which means that I get on with my job, no matter what it was. That seemed to satisfy them, but Applejack asked me why I helped some ponies struggling with the heavy plow.

“Well, I was free to do that after taking the kids to school and deciding that a blocked path wouldn’t do any good, I helped move and unload the goods,” I explained. “It feels good when you do something without being asked and with no visible return. Getting something in return kind of puts it in people’s had that they will only do things to get something. There are people or ponies out there who do things out of the kindness of their heart, despite getting gifts.”

They nodded. Then I noticed that Rainbow Dash was face-hoofing hard.

“We forgot to ask you your name,” she said.

“That’s okay, I’m Brighton,” I said.

“Brighton?” Dragonstorm said. “That sounds like a nickname.”

“It is,” I said. “I prefer to be called by my nickname.”

“Why?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Because I don’t like giving my name,” I said. “Besides, I hang with friends where it’s our custom to use nicknames.”

“Ah,” Applejack said. “That makes sense, seeing as we ain’t close friends.”

“My point exactly,” I said. “If we ever become close friends, which is a distinct possibility, then I’ll divulge my real name.”

“Ah,” Rarity said. “Sounds simply divine, darling.”

“It is,” I said.

“Mind if we come in and ask you what are some of your other customs?” Dragonstorm asked.

I gestured for them to come in and sit down. Rainbow Dash shut the door silently, so as to not disturb anypony else who was working in or around the castle. After she turned back around, I gave slight chuckle. A memory of something I had taken part in came back to me and it had been rather hilarious.

“What’s so funny?” Dragonstorm asked.

“You guys have a night called “Nightmare Night”, correct?” I asked.

“Yes, why do you ask?” Rarity asked.

“Where I’m from, “Nightmare Night” is called “Halloween”,” I said. “One thing that me and a group of twenty friends would do is that we’d go to a maze, and I’d go into the center of the maze. My friends, in costume, would start at the entrance to the maze and the goal of them was to find me before I left the maze. My goal was to get out of the maze without getting caught. Seeing as it was a hedge maze, we had one rule-That was nobody could cut through the hedges. You had to stay on the path. The people in costume could corner me if they found me at a dead end in the maze.”

“Must be rather fun,” Rainbow Dash said.

“It was,” I said. “And our outstanding rule was that I treated the person who caught me to a cup of coffee and a doughnut.”

Rainbow Dash chuckled. I glanced at her.

“You find that amusing?” I asked.

“Yeah,” she said.

“If you guys have a maze, and it’s okay with the two elderly princesses, then I’ll treat you and your siblings to a regular maze hunt,” I said.

They agreed, and instead of us going to see the princesses, we got a surprise. Opening the door, there stood Luna. She was shown in by Dragonstorm and looked at me.

“Fitting in?” she asked.

“Yes,” I said.

Before I could say anymore, Rarity, being ever so polite, interrupted and explained their presence in my room and how they had learned of my “Nightmare Night” custom of a maze game. Luna glanced thoughtfully in my direction and then asked questions if it, which I proceeded to explain to her in great detail.

“That does sound like fun,” the Moon Princess said. “I shall have a word with my sister and explain all of this.”

I told her that she was free to. Luna then stayed and asked me more questions of my time on holiday in Equestria so far. I gave her a verbatim report of all that happened. Luna’s face went through a slideshow of emotions: Anger, confusion, sorrow, happiness, anxiety, pleased, disapproving, approving, surprise, worry, concern and whatever else is on that face chart that hangs on the wall in psychiatrist offices.

When I finished, Luna placed a hoof on my shoulder.

“At least your fitting in,” she said.